Commissioner wants to know number of disabled people detained indefinitely

MARK COLVIN: Calls are growing for West Australian authorities to release an intellectually disabled Aboriginal woman who's been in jail for 18 months without a conviction.

Last night's Lateline program investigated the detention of Rosie Anne Fulton.

She was charged with driving offences but found unfit to plead because of limited intellectual capacity.

More than 25,000 people have signed an online petition started by her legal guardian, retired policeman Ian McKinlay.

Australia's disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes has told Brendan Trembath that he wants to know exactly how many disabled people are being indefinitely detained in Western Australia, and in the Northern Territory where Rosie Anne Fulton is from.

GRAEME INNES: All Australians should be concerned by this story. This is someone who has never been convicted of a crime, yet she spent 18 months in Kalgoorlie Prison. And that's no place for anyone in that circumstance, let alone a woman with intellectual disability.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Did you know anything about the case?

GRAEME INNES: Well I know some of the details of the case, but I guess the other thing that concerns me is that I'm also aware that this is not an isolated case. There are 20 or 30 people, as far as I'm aware, in Australia, being held unfit to plead provisions, being held in jail with, who have not committed a crime.

And this was highlighted by the commission last year when we made the film on Marlon Noble who spent 10 years in prison without being convicted of a crime.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: If their considered unfit to plead, how can that possibly change, how can you get a plea from them or change the situation?

GRAEME INNES: Well the fact that they're unfit to plead can't possibly change. What can change is we don't lock people up for not being convicted of a crime. We provide appropriate accommodation, either in the community with some support or in appropriate other facilities. But jail should not be the home for someone who has not been convicted of a crime.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: What will you do now?

GRAEME INNES: Well I'm calling on the WA and Northern Territory attorneys-general to urgently address Ms Fulton's situation and ensure that she returns to her homelands near Alice Springs, but secondly to carry out an audit of their prison systems to determine how many other people are in this situation, that is, being locked up without being convicted of a crime, and address those situation those circumstances as well.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: What's the broader problem here?

GRAEME INNES: Well there are a range of broad problems. Firstly there isn't appropriate screening of people before they go into prison to determine whether they have disabilities. There's a lack of appropriate accommodation for people with disabilities for people in these sorts of circumstances. And some of the laws around unfit to plead need to be amended to prevent this sort of thing from occurring.

And this was all contained in the report on unequal access to justice for people with disability that I launch from the commission on the 5th of February this year.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: If someone is required to be in prison, how should they be accommodated?

GRAEME INNES: If someone is convicted of a crime, then of course they should be appropriately punished, either in prison or by some other means. If someone has not been convicted of a crime, then we should be supporting them, either in appropriate accommodation, if that's thought to be the most effective measure, or in the community.